Presentation done by Simon Lei and Rob Law, during "Online reviews" workshop, of the ENTER2015 eTourism conference.

1. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 1
Content Analysis of TripAdvisor Reviews on
Restaurants: A Case Study of Macau
Simon Leia
&
Rob Lawb
a
Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau
b
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
simonlei@ift.edu.mo
rob.law@polyu.edu.hk

2. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 2
Agenda
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Findings & Discussions
• Conclusion

3. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 3
Introduction
Web 2.0 & Social Media
• Web 2.0
– Has four distinct features “interactivity, real-time
user control, social participation (sharing), and
user-generated content” (Laudon & Laudon, 2014)
• Social media
– “a group of Internet-based applications that build
on the ideological and technological foundations
of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and
exchange of User Generated Content” (Kaplan &
Haenlein (2010)

4. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 4
Introduction
User Generated Content
• UGC
– Texts
– Photos
– Videos
• Travellers
– Increasingly rely on trip planning
– Tend to share more
Post-trip or post-consumption experiences
(or even during a trip)

5. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 5
Introduction
Macau
• Macau
– Gambling paradise, ‘Las Vegas of Asia’
– Has rich and diversified culture but not
sufficient to stand out
– Little can be offered to non-gambling residents
and tourists

6. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 6
Introduction
Research Objectives
1) Environmental scanning of eWOM, as
‘health check’;
2) More expensive restaurants (i.e. fine
dining) do a better job in higher customer
satisfaction?

7. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 7
Literature Review
Customer Satisfaction and Word of Mouth
• High customer satisfaction  positive word
of mouth, high customer loyalty
• Low customer satisfaction  negative
word of mouth, low customer loyalty
• eWOM

8. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 8
Literature Review
Web 2.0 Applications
Ranking Name Home-based Features
1 Zagat New York City, USA 30-point scale ratings
2 Yelp San Francisco, USA 5-point scale ratings
3 Urbanspoon Seattle, USA ‘Like’ or ‘dislike’ ratings
4 Gayot Los Angeles, USA Ratings by experts
5 Dine.com California, USA 5-point scale ratings
Name Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Description
FoodIdea http://www.foodidea.net Macau local; in Chinese
OpenRice http://www.openrice.com/ Asian-based; in Chinese and English
TripAdvisor http://www.tripadvisor.com Worldwide; English and other languages
Hong Kong Tatler Dining http://hk.dining.asiatatler.com Hong Kong and Macau local; fine dining only; in English

9. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 9
Literature Review
TripAdvisor.com
Name Use Rationale
TripAdvisor Key secondary data source English; local and international presence; large
number of reviews
FoodIdea Not intended Chinese only; local presence only
OpenRice Not intended Chinese only; local and regional presence
A trustworthy secondary data source

10. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 10
Literature Review
Research Gaps
• Classification of neutral comments
Count positive comments
Count negative comments
Count neutral comments

11. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 11
Methodology
Data Collection
Price Description
$ Fast food, self service
$$ Casual, sit-down service
$$$ More formal dining
$$$$ Most expensive, special occasion
Cut-off date: 1 March 2014
(i.e. prior to this date)
English reviews only
(i.e. non-English reviews
ignored)
614 online reviews from
22 restaurants

12. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 12
Methodology
Data Analysis
Some comments can be mapped into to more
than one attributes. For instance, the comment
‘The food served is consistently good and the
prices are reasonable’ is translated into a ‘+1’
in Positive Food and a ‘+1’ in Positive Value.
Direct quotes are used
from TripAdvisor.
A review is subdivided
into sentences, marked
by a full stop. Those
sentences are known as
comments.

13. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 13
Methodology
Validity Checks
• A second proof-reader
• Localised knowledge
– Websites
– Persons

14. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 14
Methodology
Classifications
Category Subcategory Rationale
Food Meals, snacks, wines, desserts,
variety of choices, portion size,
safety, temperature, smell
No comprehensive items
could be adopted to suit all
comments
Service Attitude, efficiency, helpfulness, host-
guest interaction
(King, 1995)
Value Prices on food and wine; comparative
prices; discounts and compliments
(Haemoon, 2000)
Atmosphere Ambiance, interior décor, view,
lights, music, TV, spatial layout,
surrounding environment, special
events, performers
(Bitner, 1992; Su, 2011)
Other Unclassified; miscellaneous (Law & Cheung, 2010)

15. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 15
Findings & Discussions
Frequency counts (1)
Categories Positive Comments Negative Comments Neutral Comments
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
$ 208 82% 31 12% 16 6%
Food 93 90% 8 8% 2 2%
Service 48 98% 1 2% 0 0%
Value 14 74% 5 26% 0 0%
Atmosphere 30 97% 1 3% 0 0%
Other 23 43% 16 30% 14 26%
$$ 652 75% 58 7% 161 18%
Food 339 79% 21 5% 71 16%
Service 123 84% 10 7% 13 9%
Value 61 65% 9 10% 24 25%
Atmosphere 116 83% 7 5% 17 12%
Other 13 22% 11 18% 36 60%

16. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 16
Findings & Discussions
Frequency counts (2)
Categories Positive Comments Negative Comments Neutral Comments
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
$$$ 390 82% 35 7% 51 11%
Food 155 86% 18 10% 7 4%
Service 100 88% 8 7% 6 5%
Value 21 46% 8 17% 17 37%
Atmosphere 70 93% 0 0% 5 7%
Other 44 72% 1 2% 16 26%
$$$$ 580 69% 119 14% 141 17%
Food 279 81% 29 8% 37 11%
Service 142 71% 39 20% 19 10%
Value 41 36% 22 19% 50 44%
Atmosphere 88 81% 12 11% 9 8%
Other 30 41% 17 23% 26 36%

17. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 17
Conclusions
• High-priced restaurants do not necessarily yield high
customer satisfaction;
• Small cafes in Macau can survive and do reasonably well in
terms of customer satisfaction. But they are too small in size;
• Product quality, uniqueness, and knowledgeable and
passionate restaurateurs are the key factors to success;
• At present, customers can still find restaurants that provide
good food and service at reasonable prices

18. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 18
Conclusions
Limitations
• Review process is manual, lengthy, and mechanical;
• Human counting errors may occur;
• Somewhat difficult to draw a line between positive and
neutral, or between negative and neutral
• Did not distinguish first-time reviewers from senior
contributors (i.e. same weight)

19. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 19
Conclusions
Future Researches
1) The perceived destination image of Macau
as revealed from social media sites (e.g.
TripAdvisor);
2) Content analysis on user-generated
photos and videos taken in a destination

20. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 20
Thank you!